Death on the Nile

— Agatha Christie knows how to write a murder mystery, but bringing one to the big screen seems to be a hit or miss proposition. Kenneth Branagh’s “Death on the Nile” fits into the "near miss” category. It does start with great promise, telling the origin story of Hercule Poirot's mustache! Honestly, it’s a nice piece of filmmaking before the opening credits, but once we move to the main story, its disappointing. Arnie Hammer, who is capable of acting, isn’t very convincing as someone who passionately loves Gil Gadot. Luckily, no one would think Gadot was googly-eyed over Hammer either—there's just no chemistry between them. Hammer in particular is sometimes overly melodramatic while the rest of the actors in the scene are less exaggerated. The whole film feels crisp, angular, and sanitary, more like graphics from a video game than a murder mystery. There are also incredibly irritating camera angles, sometimes underwater and coming to the surface, sometimes shooting floor-level and looking up at a speaker. That said, it’s certainly an all-star cast with Letitia Wright standing out as the sultry blues singer and the always good Annette Benning good again. [HBO Max streaming.]

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[2022. 127 min. Directed by Kenneth Branagh. Starring . Starring Kenneth Branagh, Arnie Hammer, Gil Gadot, Tom Bateman, and Annette Bening.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/death-on-the-nile-movie-review-2022

What I watched in March 2022:

03/30/22 Death on the Nile (HBO Max)

03/28/22 Bridgerton (Netflix, season 2)

03/21/22 The Gilded Age (HBO Max series)

03/22/22 Good Girls (Netflix, season 4)

03/19/22 Rescued by Ruby (Netflix)

03/18/22 Windfall (Netflix)

03/14/22 The Protégé (Amazon Prime)

03/12/22 Joe Bell (Amazon Prime)

03/11/22 The Adam Project (Netflix)

03/09/22 The Tourist (HBO Max series)

03/09/22 Summer of Soul (Disney+ and Hulu)

03/05/22 Drive My Car (HBO Max)

03/04/22 The Royal Treatment (Netflix)

03/02/22 West Side Story (HBO Max and Disney+)

Rescued by Ruby

— It’s hard to resist a film when there’s a dog at the heart of the story. This dog, Ruby, is high-spirited and unruly, and an unlikely candidate for the K-9 unit. She also been returned form several families who’ve adopted her and now is almost at the end of her time in a shelter. An equally unlikely candidate, Dan, is a state trooper who dreams of being selected for the K-9 unit. It’s a match that’s provides plenty of humor, love, family values, perseverance, and tenderness to keep the story going. In the end, of course, it isn’t Dan who’s rescued Ruby, so much as Ruby who has rescued Dan and given him faith in himself, and it’s based on a true story. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2022. 90 min. Directed by Katt Shea. Starring Grant Gustin, Scott Wolf, and Kaylah Zander.]
https://screenrant.com/rescued-by-ruby-2022-movie-reviews/

Windfall

— Interesting thriller with a small-time burglar breaking into an arrogant billionaire’s vacation home. Just as he’s leaving, the owner and his wife arrive unexpectedly and theft morphs into hostage-taking. It feels more like a play than most movies, which isn’t a bad thing, and it certainly has a capable cast. Sometimes the humor and the suspense seemed to be at odds, but basically, it’s a nice little thriller, with none of the characters painted as saints. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2022. 92 min. Directed by Charlie McDowell. Starring Jason Segel, Lily Collins, and Jesse Plemons.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/windfall-movie-review-2022

The Protégé

— A fairly convoluted cat-and-mouse thriller that spends as much time on backstory as story. Ends up, it’s just another story about assassins, revenge, and a lot of blood. The action’s good, and the cast could be good, but the story’s just too cloudy to work well. [Amazon Prime streaming.]

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[2021. 109 min. Directed by Katt Shea. Starring Grant Gustin, Scott Wolf, and Kaylah Zander.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-prot%C3%A9g%C3%A9-movie-review-2021

The Adam Project

— This is a much better film than I’d expected, thanks to Ryan Reynolds being less a wisecracking prankster than usual, and a wonderful generation-jumping and colliding twist to the plot. Reynolds is good and a perfect match for his talented younger self played by Walker Scobell. With Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo rounding out the cast, you know it’s got the star power to be entertaining, but it also manages to be kid-friendly and quirky, and to highlight some decent values. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2022. 106 min. Directed by Shawn Levy. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Walker Scobell, Mark Ruffalo, Jennifer Garner, Zoe Saldana, and Catherine Keener.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/joe-bell-movie-review-2021

Joe Bell

— The (true) story of a father from Oregon who sets off to walk to New York City to speak out against bullying, His son, Jadin, committed suicide after a life of bullying for being gay. The film works well, mostly because of good intentions and decent enough directing and acting. It also knows how to tug at the heartstrings and, hopefully, help make people aware of the real consequences of bullying. [Amazon Prime streaming.]

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[2020. 94 min. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Reid Miller, and Connie Britton.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/joe-bell-movie-review-2021

The Tourist

— A man travelling through the Australian outback wakes in a hospital with amnesia. Viewers have seen the accident in which the man was injured and what lead up to it. Once the man is released from the hospital, he realizes pretty quickly someone’s out to kill him, and we’re all on the same page again, having jumped from mystery to thriller, setting up a wonderful series. It’s addictive, binging material as episodes reveal more and more, driving the story forward but leaving plenty of uncertainty too. It might have been better told as a feature film than 6-episode series, but it’s well worth seeing as is. [Netflix streaming.]

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[2022. One season, 6 episodes. ~55 min./episode. Stars Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald, and Shalom Brune-Franklin.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-tourist-tv-review-2022

 

Drive My Car (Doraibu mai kâ)

— I loved this beautiful and subtle, sometimes erotic, and sometimes mysterious Japanese film. A car becomes a confessional as stories are shared each day between rider and driver, where mysteries from the past are revealed, and the realities of grief and self-acceptance, of letting go and moving forward, are explored. It’s hard to describe the beauty of this story, but its not to be missed. [HBO Max streaming.]

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[2021. 179 min. Directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. Staring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Tôko Miura, Reika Kirishima, and Park Yu-rim.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/drive-my-car-movie-review-2021